Transfusions of blood components, such as platelets and cryoprecipitates, are often required under current medical practice. For example, transfusions of platelets are sometimes required to stop serious bleeding in patients who experience a decrease in their number of platelets due to primary bone marrow failure and the resulting inadequate production of platelets. Transfusions of platelets are also sometimes required to control excessive bleeding in patients undergoing massive transfusions of blood. The excessive bleeding is related to the decrease in the number of platelets, which have a poor viability in stored blood, and platelet transfusions are sometimes necessary to control the excessive bleeding.
Under current medical techniques, when a patient requires transfusions of blood components, the medical personnel must attach several blood component bags to the patient in order to provide the necessary amount of components. Each blood component bag must be individually given to the patient. The existing method of transfusing blood components has several disadvantages.
Each time the contents of a blood component bag must be given to a patient, there is a risk of infection. A patient needing transfusions of blood components often requires several units of platelets, for example. Under existing medical techniques, each unit must be individually given to the patient, or a jury-rigged set up must be used, either way greatly increasing the risk of infection.
Also, since each blood component bag must be used individually, the nursing staff must spend a considerable amount of time tending to the patient when several units of blood components are to be transfused.
Blood components such as platelets and cryoprecipitates are very thick and tend to form sticky masses, which may clog the needles used in the transfusion unless the blood components are resuspended in a small amount of sterile saline solution. Under the existing transfusion methods, the blood component bags are individually connected to the patient: Saline solution cannot be easily added to the blood component bag, and the contents of the bag form a sticky mass that cannot be easily transfused into the patient. As a result, the patient often receives only 40-70% of the contents of a blood component bag.
Since, under the existing medical techniques, the entire content of the blood component bags cannot be easily transfused, the patient does not receive the full benefit of the units that his physician has ordered, nor does he receive the entire amount that he has paid for.
The following patents are, to the inventor's knowledge, the more generally pertinent references relating to the present invention.
West German Pat. No. 807,216, issued to Ulrich, describes a reusable metal valve used in the transfusion of blood from one person to another. A rotatable stopcock channels blood between a syringe port and ports leading to the donor, to the recipient, and to a saline solution source. By rotating the stopcock rather than the syringe, disturbance to the recipient and the donor is decreased.
This invention relates to a valve used in direct transfusions of blood between the donor and recipient. The valve is manufactured out of metal and is easily disassemblable into its component parts so that it may be thoroughly cleaned.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,397,335, issued to Doblar et al., describes a rotary valve used to measure pressures within the body and to administer medications and intravenous fluids, while minimizing the risk of contamination incurred when using multiple stopcocks.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,957,082, issued to Fuson et al., describes a stopcock that may be rotated to select fluids from any one of three inlet ports or a mixture of fluids from two adjacent inlet ports.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,780,736, issued to Chen, describes a four-way rotatable valve used in the irrigation of a patient's bladder following surgery. The valve may be rotated to bring a compressible bulb into communication with a urinary catheter or the source of the irrigating fluid. Also, the urinary catheter may be connected to a bedside urinary drainage bag without physically disconnecting any of the components.
A general object of the present invention is to provide a valve for use in blood component transfusions to make the transfusions safer and more efficient. Another object of the present invention is to provide a valve for use in blood component transfusions to enable the pooling of multiple units of the components before transfusion to the patient. Pooling the blood components prior to the transfusion has the effect that only one pooled blood component bag needs to be given to the patient. The risk of infection is thus decreased and the transfusion requires less attention by the nursing staff.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a valve for use in blood component transfusions to enable the injection of sterile saline solution into the blood component bag. Particles in the blood component that may have formed a sticky mass may be resuspended in the saline solution so that they may be drawn out of the bag.
Yet another object of this invention is to make the valve in a disposable form by using such material as acrylic resins for its manufacture.
A further object of this invention is to provide a sterile kit to facilitate the pooling of blood components.
Other objects, uses and advantages of the present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the accompanying description of the preferred embodiment in conjunction with the drawings.